1. Fields of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to playing cards and coupons, and more particularly, to a set of cards used as both coupons and playing cards. The invention further relates to the method of making cards usable as both coupons and playing cards.
2. Discussion of Background and Prior Art
Playing cards are commonly used by individuals to play various card games, such as poker, blackjack, gin rummy, bridge, and many other playing card games. Playing cards can be made to have various shapes and designs. Some common shapes of playing cards are rectangular, round, oval, and square.
A playing card is typically designed with a playing card indicia, such as the suit (i.e. spades, diamonds, clubs, or hearts), and a card number (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K or A), which are both printed on a front face of the card. The back face of a playing card does not have any special design. A number of designs may be printed on the back faces of the playing cards, and the same picture or design is typically used on the back faces of all the playing cards of a set so that they are uniform. The picture or design is mainly aesthetic in nature.
In the past playing cards have had advertisements printed on at least one face of the card. Vendors have placed these advertisements on playing cards to promote their goods or services to various users of the playing cards. The goal of the vendors in this instance would be to effectively advertise by familiarizing players with the advertisements through the use of these cards so as to influence consumers to later purchase their goods or services.
Key differences between advertisements and coupons do in fact, exist. As stated earlier, advertisements are used for encouraging consumers to later purchase the various promoted goods or services themselves. Coupons, on the other hand, are used for promoting and encouraging consumers to go to vendor locations and redeem the coupons for the value of the coupon itself in kind or as a discount on more valuable goods or services. Therefore, the fundamental difference between advertisements and coupons is that advertisements do not have any redeeming value while coupons do since they are exchangeable for value. Presently, however, a set of cards usable as both coupons and playing cards that have coupon messages printed on a face of each of the cards does not exist in the market.
For several years, marketing groups and companies have compiled and made books of coupons, (i.e. "entertainment books"), which were sold to various consumers for a price (i.e. typically $30.00-$50.00). These books contain many coupons in which various merchants offered a number of goods or services at a discount. The marketing group would compile these books by obtaining agreements between various vendors to give or render discounts on various goods or services in exchange for the marketing group promoting the discounts by printing the discount information in coupon form into these books. Consumers that purchased these books would benefit from the discounts being offered by the various vendors.
In the past, most marketing groups have compiled this information in a book form in which the coupons were torn out of the book at the time the consumers were to use them. Presently, however, a set of coupons, which have been compiled in the form of playing cards or a deck of playing cards, does not exist in the market. Additionally, a set of coupons printed in the form of playing cards to be used to further promote and market the goods or services that are being offered by the cards also does not exist on the market.
In overcoming the problems and limitations of the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a plurality of cards usable as both coupons and playing cards so that the cards are redeemable for valuable goods or services.
It is another object of the invention to provide a plurality of cards usable as both coupons and playing cards that are round.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a plurality of cards usable as both coupons and playing cards that make up a complete deck of cards.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a plurality of cards usable as both coupons and playing cards that make up a set of coupons.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a set of cards that are coupons for goods or services related to casinos.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a set of cards that is designed to promote the goods or services being offered at a discount.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a set of cards designed to have the shape of a round, flat, casino chip.